Flobots - 'Handlebars'
Stop it, Dad, you're scaring me!
If you believe the self-em-biggerising rhetoric of Jon McClure, the Reverend of Reverend And The Makers near-fame, there is no-one around at the moment who is prepared to stick their neck out and make any kind of political statement in their music...no-one except him, of course.
Well, even if this has been true until now (which it hasn't), here's something which is sure to make him happy, a political song which does not flinch from any of the issues around power and how it corrupts.
The main thrust of this song - which musically sounds like the band Cake on a particularly grumpy day - is that it's hard to spot where to draw the line when people push themselves forward to be stared at. Is everything bad in modern life down to a lust for power? And if so, where does this desire come from?
Is it OK to cheer when a kid proves he can ride his bike with no-hands? Of course it is. How about a kid who learns to rap? How about a kid who grows up to be a scientist? How about a scientist who develops a devastating bomb? Or a politician who presses the button which launches that bomb?
And was it your support which put that politician into that position? Then surely you're in some way responsible for the damage caused by the bomb too?
These are just a few of the questions which come out of listening to a song which does not tell you what you're supposed to think, just repeats certain thought-provoking phrases and waits to see what you make of them. It's a lot more powerful than someone shouting that war is bad, or that you, the singer, don't personally want to be an American Idiot.
Naturally, it's unlikely that many minds are going to be changed by listening to a song like this. In many ways that's not really music's job. All music can hope to do is communicate that other people are picking apart the same political questions that you are, and maybe offer some other perspectives to help you draw some solid conclusions.
That said, this does do that spectacularly well, which is a gauntlet thrown down for Mr McClure, if nothing else...
Download: Out now
CD Released: September 22nd
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 15th Sep 2008, glovecompartment wrote:great song, great video
does the guy sound like mike shinoda or is that just me.
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Comment number 2.
At 15th Sep 2008, Kat wrote:I love this song. It's in an advert right now, but only the handlebars part which makes it sound so trivial.
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